A. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to household fixtures and more particularly to a wash sink and drained area assembly having a wash sink assembled in proximity to an enclosable and drained floor area, and the method of construction thereof.
B. Description of Related Art
Several designs of one piece or integrated sink and shower or tub assemblies have been designed for providing a compact and convenient facility for personal hygiene. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. D110,643, 2,084,793, 2,198,605, 2,438,665, 3,600,720, 4,718,131, and 4,653,128 all describe sanitary facilities in which a sink and shower are combined in a single fixture unit. While these types of fixture units may be useful for personal hygiene, they are not designed for utility purposes such as clothes washing, pet bathing, air or drip-drying wet items, plant misting, and or cleaning large items such as muddy footwear. While many modern home designs provide for utility or xe2x80x9cmudxe2x80x9d rooms, the usefulness of such rooms is limited by the facilities available. Commonly available utility sinks are not sufficient for cleaning large or extremely dirty items, pets or children. Drained areas for drying garments or other wet items are not used. Therefore, the need remains for a utility unit, which is suited for such utility purposes and can be conveniently and compactly fitted into a mud or utility room of a personal residence. Rather than providing a facility for personal hygiene, such a utility unit would provide features that are not applicable or useful for personal hygiene, except for pets or small children.
While counter level wash sinks for hand laundering of clothes are known, there is a need for adjacent facilities for drying hand washed items by hanging and allowing water to drip off the items. Occasionally washroom areas are designed with a central floor drain, but use of a central floor drain allows the drainage to extend over the floor into areas that may serve as pathways. What is required is an integrated assembly including a wash sink with hand spray attachment in close proximity to a partially enclosable and self contained area with a floor drainage system similar to a shower drain pan and with rods and racks placed for convenient drying of washed or wet items.
The present invention comprises an assembly comprising, at one end, a wash sink formed at conventional work sink height with appropriate plumbing for a faucet with hot and cold water, and a partially enclosed drained area immediately and laterally adjacent the sink. In the preferred embodiment, the entire fixture body is molded as a single unit of fiber reinforced resin, although other materials, such as plastic, tile or plastic laminates could be substituted with similar results. The unit is configured to be installed in a residential utility room along a wall, and has a front, at which the user stands, and a rear, which abuts the wall when installed. The distance from front to rear is such as will allow comfortable arm""s length access to items in the rear. The sink section comprises a faucet and flow control devices for hot and cold water as well as a sprayer attachment with a flexible and preferably retractable hose, which is long enough to reach the far end of the drained area. The sprayer nozzle is preferably adapted for flow control to provide a high velocity spray, which may be adjustable for velocity, volume and/or pattern. In the preferred embodiment, the drained area is located to the right, viewing the unit from front to rear, for the convenience of right hand dominant users; however, the relative positions of the sink and drained areas could be reversed if desired. The drained area comprises a drain pan with a central drain and a pan floor sloping toward the drain. An outer lip extends upward from the floor of the pan, the inside surface of the lip forming a shoulder which surrounds the entire drained area to support and surround an open grate suitably strong to bear a user""s weight. The unit may be installed with the drain below the level of the floor in the room in which it is installed such that the lip and grate are flush or nearly flush with the room floor. The preferred installation would involve only a slight upward protrusion of the lip above floor level. An alternative installation would place the entire unit above the room floor with the lip significantly elevated above floor level. The choice of installation height may be determined by the user""s desires and expected usage and may be influenced by construction convenience as the process of installing the recessed drain pan may require modifications of floor joists.
The wash and drain area unit comprises a vertical and flat rear wall of impervious material as well as two side walls that are also vertical, flat and impervious. One or more series of hook shaped rack supports are mounted on the rear and side walls at convenient heights to support drying racks or to support clothes hung thereon. Each series of hooks comprises three hooks mounted on the rear wall and two hooks mounted on each side wall, all hooks in a series being mounted at the same height. Open grate drying racks extend from at least one side wall hook to the other side wall hook when deployed horizontally, and the racks may be raised to a vertical position flat against the rear wall and resting on the rear wall hooks, or the racks may be completely removed. The unit further comprises one or more retractable clotheslines on the side walls containing a spring loaded line extendable to hooks on the opposing side wall. The drained area is partially enclosable by a retractable curtain. A hinged bar extends horizontally from a hinge fitting on the front of the side wall opposite to the sink, to a releasable support fitting on the side of the sink cabinet, at the front of the unit, parallel to and slightly rearward of the front edge of the drain area lip. A retractable curtain is supported by the bar and extendable the length of the bar and across the front edge of the drained area such that the drained area can be completely enclosed to a height just less than counter height. With the curtain fully deployed, the sprayer can be vigorously used in the drain area without splashing or over spray escaping the drained area. While the height of the curtain may vary according to expected usage, it is anticipated that a height of about thirty inches would be most generally convenient.
The principal aim of the present invention is to provide a sink and drained area assembly which meets the foregoing requirements and which is capable of providing a comfortable and convenient residential utility facility.
Another and further object and aim of the present invention is to provide a sink and drained area assembly which meets the foregoing requirements and which is capable of being economical to manufacture and install.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the Description of the Preferred Embodiment and the Drawings and will be in part pointed out in more detail hereinafter.
The invention consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts exemplified in the construction hereinafter described and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the appended claims.